You should do well in Montreal with tulips! A good cold period. I believe they put down some roots after planting in the fall. In theory you can plant from September to November in Zone 5, but I have gotten better results planting earlier. That is, if the squirrels didn't see me and dig them all up. Last fall I tried planting really late (late November) to avoid the squirrels, and the tulips never came up. My son started attending university in Montreal. In his honor I bought Tulips with Canadian city names: there's a whole series, though I have not found them all yet. I have Toronto and Quebec, there's Calgary too.

You do indeed want it. My rule nowadays is that I don't respond to posts here, only b/c I'm too busy with other stuff. But mention Radio Times, and I have to respond! This is one of my all-time favorite roses, particularly for its fragrance. I just made a list of 17 must-have fragrant roses for a local friend, with links to their pics at Heirloom, and this was one of them. The fragrance on this rose is beyond divine. And while it wants to go large-ish in a warmer climate, you can indeed hack it back hard if you want to keep it smaller, and it responds well to that and doesn't sulk. If you smell it once, you will want to grow it. Mmm... one of the all-time greatest rose fragrances. Susan in Santa Barbara

I have heard of people who have QF in the northeast and it is a about as tall as me so 6' by 6' (not sure how old that shrub was though). PW seems to be bigger when I have seen pics so assume it can get to 8' (it may get wider than it is tall, so assume >> 8'). With a shorter growing season, similar shrubs in your area may be smaller and not as wide in 10 years but may be in 15 (just a guess) they may be. Also, consider that those numbers in the plant labels are "guestimates" ;o)) to begin with, probably around 10 years of maturity, not just 4 so get the smaller versions for those spaces. If you are given a size range in a plant label, assume the larger number applies to places with a longer growing season (ex.: usually the southern states) and the smaller number applies to places with a smaller growing season (usually cold northern locations). Finally, hydrangeas never stop growing so, yes, you can assume that they will keep getting bigger. However, in cold regions, dieback will occur sometimes and help keep large sizes in check. But paniculatas are also known for being vigorous growers... after being pruned, forexample, they recover almost all their previous height in a single growing season. Lastly, paniculatas like VS which have not been for sale "long enough" do not yet have a track record so it is difficult to see if the estimates in the plant labels will turn out to be way off or not.

What you have is basically a cold frame not a greenhouse. A cold frame like a greenhouse needs to be opened a little or a lot every day even if it's cloudy or your plants will cook. It does heat up fast when the sun is shining but even a cloudy day lets the the sun poke out enough to raise the heat. Depending on the quality of your cold frame it will protect the plants a bit but if the temperature goes much below zero at night I'd either bring them inside or cover the whole cold frame with a garden blanket and be sure to remove it first thing in the morning. I have a Flowerhouse cold frame that I use for the overflow from my greenhouse. It is very well built with a heavy covering. Most days I close it up around 4 PM to retain some heat for the night. I open it around 8 AM